ABSTRACT
One interesting subset of Jewish jokes of a self-mocking kind are those told about Jewish women, although once again it is important to note the significance of internal differentiation within the group. The comparative strategy does not lead to a contrast between men and women as such, but between two specific groups, one male and one female, who are the butts of very particular kinds of joke. All Jewish men owe their Jewish identity to a Jewish mother since conversion is discouraged and for the Orthodox, the children of a gentile wife who has not converted are not Jews. In the Scottish jokes the wife's sexuality is not called into question and it is the man who is being canny, canny about expenditure in a way characteristic of both Scottish and Jewish men in other jokes based on the canny script.
